Post Covid Questions From Beat-up Pastors #3

It was a small lunch meeting of a few experienced, thoughtful, regular guy pastors. 

No long-bearded whiz kids. No visionaries, empire builders, trail blazers or trend setting, careful dressing innovators at the table. These are the guys that actually answer their phones when people call at odd hours. They make middle of the night trips to the hospital to visit the sick, know how to sit with a grieving family, can talk with a mixed-up kid and because he seldom listens the first time, can get the little knot head out of jail a few days later. They dedicate babies, make a difference when officiating a funeral, juggle budgets and answer questions. Lots of them. All day long. 

Just regular, dependable church leaders whose real specialty isn't sermonizing or saving the world, but problem solving. They've heard the unoriginal jokes about preachers working one day a week hundreds of times and haven't once kicked anybody. These are nice guys.

Though hailing from different backgrounds and traditions and ministry approaches, all had surprised themselves by living through and limping out of the lockdown upheaval and messy aftermath with only bruises and lacerations - none of them yet fatal.

Banter, banter, banter, then light talk turned serious church talk. The unrelenting grind of it all the last three years was mentioned, as was lagging and maddening post-Covid attendance. We poked at the higher profile churches use of money, splash and prominence to 'corner the market', imposing their 'brand' on the community while other churches curtailed activities attempting the thankless juggling act of following public health protocols while keeping a church alive. A lot tumbled out: the law of diminishing returns that weirdly dictates making greater investment in media and digital presence that results in weakening loyalty to our churches. We marveled at the popularity and hard to explain attraction of copycat services by trendy churches that merely sell eye and ear candy with the thinnest sliver of a gospel lite nougat. We worried over the increasingly indispensable need for ever more tech savvy approaches to . . . well, everything.

Then, the unanswerables: Is traditional ministry shifting? Where do regular pastors fit in anymore?

A lot of voices are calling and cultural winds are ever shifting. While the trends may be new, the phenomenon isn't. Since Ecclesiastes at least, things have been in constant flux. 

Here's the thing - people will always need caring, competent shepherds. Human guilt will still invite agony, grief won't take a holiday, the lost will always deserve finding and, as always, the wounded will never wait. Ministry will never change and neither will the Solution.

The reasons the good ones get into church ministry remain worthy reasons. Serving Christ and serving hurting people whom He loves intensely will never go out of vogue. Those are timeless things that pastors do.                                                    

Here's my idea of traditional ministry - 

1. Caring for the poor and neglected and teaching others how to see people the way Jesus sees people  

2. Making followers of Jesus so effectively that they make followers who make followers                                               

3. Showing people how to have a longer than life conversation with a Relationship God who has already included them in His dance

Our God will always make room for called men and women who are willing to do these things well and you don't need a coffee bar, black ceiling tiles or muted lighting to make it happen.